Lawmaker Meets With NU, Says He Learns Little New

The legislature's House majority leader met with Northeast Utilities on Thursday to discuss reports that the company might outsource information-technology jobs, but he said he did not learn much.

"I met with Northeast Utilities today, and unfortunately they did not provide much information beyond confirming that they are looking at improving 'best practices' throughout the company, including the information technology department, that would include outsourcing," state Rep. Joe Aresimowicz said in a prepared statement. Aresimowicz represents Berlin, where NU is headquartered.

He had requested the meeting after hearing that the company plans to streamline functions — and that some workers were saying that hundreds of jobs might be outsourced.

"I have told Northeast Utilities that I have cleared my schedule to be wherever I need to be to work with them to keep these jobs right here in Connecticut where they belong," Aresimowicz said.

"Northeast Utilities has bludgeoned its own reputation with its actions over the past few years. Cutting in-state jobs and shipping them overseas does not seem like a 'best practice' to restoring public trust in the company," Aresimowicz said.

NU spokeswoman Caroline Pretyman said recently that the company's work to consolidate after its recent merger with NStar was ongoing and that the company was still seeking the savings anticipated from that deal. She said NU was "evaluating opportunities to streamline and improve IT functions" but had signed no contracts with any outside firms.

Deputy Majority Leader Sandy Nafis of Newington was also at Thursday's meeting, according to a statement from the House Democrats.

The electric and gas utility — whose divisions include Yankee Gas and Connecticut Light & Power — has promised to abide by a merger settlement agreement that says that merger-related job cuts need to be made proportionally between Massachusetts and Connecticut, where the two companies were headquartered. The utility has also promised to make quarterly reports on job levels.

Representatives of the state attorney general and the state consumer counsel also met with NU this week. They had requested the meeting after receiving close to a dozen complaints about potential outsourcing.

The attorney general's office Thursday released this statement about that meeting: "This Office and the Office of Consumer Counsel had preliminary, productive discussions with Northeast Utilities officials about NU's compliance with the settlement agreement and storm readiness.

"While we understand that corporate operations continually evolve in any industry, we must ensure that CL&P and Yankee Gas remain capable of meeting their public service obligations at reasonable rates and that NU complies with the settlement agreement. We look forward to additional discussions with NU and continue to urge it to be forthcoming and transparent about its future plans."

Four employees, who spoke with The Courant on the condition of anonymity, have said they were told in meetings that two IT companies had been chosen by NU to take over the department's functions and that the final details of the deal were being worked out.

One question the employees raised about any potential outsourcing was how the utility would make up the regular "storm duty" that current information technology employees cover during hurricanes or other large storm events. Most employees have some sort of storm duty, and vendors typically do not, the employees said.